1860’s-80’s race coarse

CarsonChris

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On some of the old maps I’ve managed to find horse racing tracks. These are quite large. Where would you look at the race track. Inside or outside the oval?
The first one was a bust but I only looked at a small portion. To many houses had been built around it and were private property.
 
Be aware that sometimes those oval tracks you see on old topo maps might only have been private trotting tracks. Not tracks that were for public events. Ie.: Singular family deals.
 
Be aware that sometimes those oval tracks you see on old topo maps might only have been private trotting tracks. Not tracks that were for public events. Ie.: Singular family deals.

What if one of those tracks was from a well known horse breeder who’s horses were considered the best?
 
What if one of those tracks was from a well known horse breeder who’s horses were considered the best?

Ha ! Well sure : And the same question could be asked EVEN IF THEIR WAS NO "racetrack" in the question/equation/formula. Ie: "What if they were rich ?" :?:

Leading to an assumption : "Therefore: Their yard must contain more goodies/coins", eh ?

The ONLY point-at-which this logic *MIGHT* be true, is within the caliber of jewelry. And this is assuming that jewelry is a person's objective, and assuming that someone even LOST jewelry, to begin with. But no, it's not true about fumble fingers coins. Because, to the extent of someone "loosing a penny or a dime", the same fumble fingers rationale applies: A poor guy can loose a penny or dime JUST THE SAME WAY a rich guy does. Doh !

And this is all silly-talk in the first place (as it pertains to this discussion of race-tracks) : Because when we can agree that it could have been a private trotting track (aka, like someone's front yard), then we're no longer talking about "race courses" (which conjur up images of rodeos, public, bleachers, grandstands, etc...) in the first place. Right ?

(don't get "lost in the example") : My buddy and I found a "racetrack" on a 1900-ish topo map. Clearly an oval racetrack. Woohoo ! And lo & behold, we determined that the land had been owned (at the time of the topo map) by a very rich historical CA figure. Woohoo ! (thus, sure, they can afford private trotting tracks , blah blah). So we just ASSUMED that goodies awaited us, eh ? Because I had been the student of a local rodeo grandstands/track in the area I grew up in (that yielded hundreds of silver coins), so .... logically ... this should be the same, eh ?

But alas, nothing to speak of (barring some wheaties or whatever). So what was the difference ? Simple : Private trotting track (by some rich dude) vs a public rodeo or park or whatever.
 
Found an old 2 mile cycle track used from the 1800's -1920's. It was where the national 500 was held between Harly Davidson and Indian motorcycles. people came from as far as Europe to race. Here is an overlay of a 1937 map on a new layout. Hunting was very good until the owner changed his mind about giving us permission.

Also a picture of some of my better finds and my favorite. A 1914 silver Indian Motorcycle pin. I also added some pictures from the actual races at the time.
 

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I hope this area yields some goodies. I’m not sure if it will or not. This guy ran the equivalent of the first million dollar horse and there’s lots of mentions of him in papers of that era. I would think he had stable hands attend to his horses. His track is roughly 1/2 mile from his house. I don’t think this would be the usual trot track of a normal home owner of that era. If I could only get permission to hunt the yard though! Side note, there is a town in California named after this person.
 
Found an old 2 mile cycle track used from the 1800's -1920's. It was where the national 500 was held between Harly Davidson and Indian motorcycles. people came from as far as Europe to race. Here is an overlay of a 1937 map on a new layout. Hunting was very good until the owner changed his mind about giving us permission.

Also a picture of some of my better finds and my favorite. A 1914 silver Indian Motorcycle pin. I also added some pictures from the actual races at the time.

:lol::lol: Now that's one MEAN looking biker pin!!!:lol::lol:
 
I hope this area yields some goodies. I’m not sure if it will or not. This guy ran the equivalent of the first million dollar horse and there’s lots of mentions of him in papers of that era. I would think he had stable hands attend to his horses. His track is roughly 1/2 mile from his house. I don’t think this would be the usual trot track of a normal home owner of that era. If I could only get permission to hunt the yard though! Side note, there is a town in California named after this person.

Good luck CChris, show us the loot 👍
 
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Here is a track that I found. It was a small town and still is a small town. It’s hard to imagine it was a big public track. It’s 20 miles or so from the county seat.
I’ll try to get out there in the spring.
 
Went to the race course. I marked the center of the course on my gps. Aerial views don’t show anything there. At the center of the track a watering hole was dug at some point in time and there were nail beds around it. I found part of a silver chain, a broken pocket knife, ox shoe, and horse shoe. The area is very over grown with grass. There were some pieces of purple and brown glass. I’m sure the nail bed was part of stables.

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And they're off!

Looks promising and you're off to a good start. I was very interested in the answer(s) to your original question, but didn't see any...

Where around the track might be most...lucrative? Where did people sit? Was there a betting window? Where did people get liquered up and make bets and watch the races? Bleachers? Infield? Probably best close to the finish line if you can figure that out... at the "50 yard lines" maybe?
 
And they're off!

Looks promising and you're off to a good start. I was very interested in the answer(s) to your original question, but didn't see any...

Where around the track might be most...lucrative? Where did people sit? Was there a betting window? Where did people get liquered up and make bets and watch the races? Bleachers? Infield? Probably best close to the finish line if you can figure that out... at the "50 yard lines" maybe?

As Tom said some people owned their own track. I can find information on horses this man owned but I can’t find information on races at his place. Seems he raced in nearby towns and some of those races are documented in newspapers. There were periodic signals everywhere within the track zone. The actual track it’s self isn’t visible. The highest concentration was by this spot that appears to be a watering hole that was dug.
 
People got together even on those private tracks to race and bet and drink. Horse racing tracks have produced some of my best finds; over 50 silvers barber or older including seated halfs and quarters, silver pocket watch, horse bells, unique racing tack and so much more. even better are the ones in small towns as they often served as a place for the fair grounds, harvest festivals, weddings, circus acts, and so on. You would be silly not to pound that place a few times to see if it has potential.
 
mosdt of my finds at tracks come in either around the main stretch that includes the finish line, or if it was also used as a fair grounds or public racing, there would be bleachers, food tents, and people selling items. You want to look for the .22 shells from blanks used in starter pistols, that will get you close to the start/finish line. there should be a pile of em near the side of the track somewhere if the track still shows signs of being there(look for clay, most tracks had packed clay as the track surface....atleast they did around me). On the larger tracks there were also stable buildings and as you said a watering hole. Also look for any banks or hillsides next to and overviewing the track as people would set up and picnic and watch from those spots.
 
also you should look up the history behind banning gambling and what it did to horse racing, i think its something like in 1907 or around there when it happend. It resulted in the death of many of these tracks, and left many hidden across the country to be nothing more than a farm field or patch of trees by the 1930s. One of the reasons these places are so great to detect(especially the ones in smaller towns) is they were never used beyond 1907 or so. So you have very little modern trash, in a place with a whole lot of old targets.
 
camptowns race tracks 5 miles long...do dah...do dah....( ok i got too excited over horse tracks, ill stop posting now)
 
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